Cardeno C.'s Blog, page 74

The Pu Pu Platter Post by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday! I have smattering of things to share today.

I'm part of a really fun Facebook group put together by an incredibly nice set of authors: Riley Hart, Felice Stevens, Christina Lee, N.R. Walker, Ella Frank, and Layne Hayes. If you're a Facebooker, come join us here.Speaking of Felice and Riley, my fellow Cafe Risque bloggers and now Facebook Daily Grinders, they each have a new release out! Felice's What Lies Between Us is a sweet, romantic, feel-good novella. Riley's Shifting Gears is a bit of grit, a bit of friends-to-lovers, a bit of healing, and a lot of sexy.I discounted McFarland's Farm to $.99 for Valentine's weekend on Amazon and ARe. The discount will be up for a few more hours yet.And last but not last, I wrote a personal post on Wednesday. If you missed it, it's here.
Have a super week.

CC
www.cardenoc.com

Introducing Lumiere aveuglante by Renae Kaye

I would like to introduce you all to my new release – Lumiere aveuglante.
[French readers, please scroll down for translation].
To be released on the 16th of February 2016, it is the French translation of my bestselling novel, The Blinding Light.
I am excited about this, as it is my first foray into the French market.  The Italians got a taste of Loving Jay (Innamorato di Jay) last year, but this year is for those who speak French.
Lumiere aveuglante is the story of two men who meet in unusual circumstances.  Patrick Stanford has been blind from birth, and relies on a housekeeper to clean his home and buy his groceries.  Unfortunately he is rather rude and abrupt to them, and so they continue to quit on him.  Enter his new housekeeper, Jake Manning.  Patrick has learned to ignore the change of housekeeper the company sends him, but he’s having trouble ignoring the alluring smell of his new employee.
Jake is barely keeping his head above water.  He works two jobs to pay off a debt that isn’t his, and takes care of his alcoholic mother and younger sisters.  His sarcasm has gotten him fired from more than one job, and cleaning up after someone is nothing new to him.  However, when he meets his new employer, he can’t seem to keep his eyes to himself, or his comments.
Patrick and Jake are drawn into a relationship that is both new and wonderful to them both.  Neither has experienced anything like it before.  But will their fledgling love falter when the needs of Jake’s family pull him away?
For those new to me, I’m from Perth, Western Australia.  All my books are set in my home state, so by reading me you get to experience a short vacation to Australia.  I’m not good at taking life seriously, and so my books contain a lot of humour and light-hearted situations.  My characters often tackle hard subjects, but we never fall into depression and angst.  Reading Renae Kaye means a couple of hours of fun.
You are welcome to look me up on any of my social media sites.
Email:  renaekaye@iinet.net.au
Website:  www.renaekaye.weebly.com
FB:  www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9
Twitter:  @renaekkaye


Lumiere aveuglante will be available in both eBook and paperback.  You can pre-order here:DreamspinnerAmazon Amazon France Amazon Canada Barnes and Noble
I’m looking forward to hearing from my new readers and making new friends.




French Translation
Je voudrais tous vous présenter ma nouvelle publication - Lumière aveuglante.

Le livre sera publié  le 16 Février 2016, c’est la traduction française de mon roman à succès, The Blinding Light.

Je suis excité à ce sujet, car il est ma première incursion dans le marché français. Les Italiens ont goûté à Loving Jay (Innamorato di Jay) l'année dernière, mais cette année est pour les lecteurs français.

Lumière aveuglante est l'histoire de deux hommes qui se rencontrent dans des circonstances inhabituelles. Patrick Stanford est aveugle de naissance, et compte sur une femme de ménage pour nettoyer sa maison et acheter ses produits d'épicerie. Malheureusement, il est assez grossier et brutal, les aides ménagères ne veulent pas travailler pour lui très longtemps. Entre alors dans sa vie, une toute nouvelle personne, Jake Manning. Patrick a appris à ignorer le changement de femme de ménage que l'entreprise lui envoie, mais il a du mal à ignorer l'odeur séduisante de son nouvel employé.


Jake arrive à peine à garder la tête hors de l'eau. Il a deux emplois pour payer une dette qui n'est pas la sienne, et prend soin de sa mère alcoolique et ses jeunes soeurs. Son sarcasme lui à fait perdre plus d'un emploi, mais nettoyer après quelqu'un n'est rien de nouveau pour lui. Cependant, quand il rencontre son nouvel employeur, il ne parvient pas à garder ses yeux pour lui-même ou ses francs commentaires.

Patrick et Jake sont entraînés dans une relation qui est à la fois nouvelle et merveilleuse pour tous les deux. Aucun des deux n'a rien connu de tel auparavant. Mais leur amour naissant risque-t-il de faiblir lorsque les besoins de la famille de Jake en viennent à prendre une grande place dans leur vie?

Pour ceux qui ne me connaisse pas, je suis de Perth, Western Australia. Tous mes livres sont placé dans le décor de mon pays d'origine, donc en me lisant, vous expérimenterez de courtes vacances en Australie. Je ne prend pas toujours la vie au sérieux, j'aime rire et ainsi plusieurs de mes livres contiennent beaucoup d'humour et de situations légères. Mes personnages abordent souvent des sujets difficiles, mais ne tombent jamais dans la dépression et l'angoisse. Lire Renae Kaye signifie quelques heures de plaisir.

Vous êtes invités à me suivre sur :
Email:  renaekaye@iinet.net.au
Website:  www.renaekaye.weebly.com
FB:  www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9
Twitter:  @renaekkaye

Lumière aveuglante sera disponible dans les deux formats eBook et livre papier. Vous pouvez pré-commander ici:

DreamspinnerAmazonAmazon FranceAmazon CanadaBarnes and Noble

Je suis impatiente d'entendre votre opinion, mes nouveaux lecteurs et me de faire de nouveaux amis.

Secrets and Lies by Felice Stevens

When we last left Zach Cohen and Sam Stein, they were madly in love and newly engaged. Fast forward a year and a half and they are still crazy about each other, but cracks have begun to emerge in the previously unbroken facade of their relationship.

You see, Zach had found his voice and his independence. And in finding himself, he believed that gave him the right to tell his mother who she should date. Additionally, he makes some very big life decisions without taking Sam's point of view into consideration.

Sam is not without his faults, either. By omitting to tell Zach some very important problems he was facing, Sam might not technically have been lying to Zach, but is the sin of omission almost as bad?

Have you ever kept anything from your lover, significant other or spouse because you thought they couldn't handle the truth or because you believed you were protecting them? And what about what Zach did? Do you take the choice away from your partner because you think you know best what they might like?

What Lies Between Us releases Sunday, Valentine's Day. I hope you enjoy reading this latest installment of The Breakfast Club Guys. 
Happy Valentine's Day!

Shifting Gears by Riley Hart

SHIFTING GEARS, book two in the Crossroads series is now available!

I had a blast writing Rod and Landon's story! I'm so excited that it's out there in the world. Rod had me cracking up while I was writing. That's such a fun experience.



Amazon

Barnes and Noble

iBooks

Kobo




Blurb:

Rod Nelson is used to being someone’s good time, and that’s fine with him. Spending his days at his adult toy store, Rods-N-Ends, he never knows who he’ll meet. The second Landon Harrison walks in, he has Rod’s full attention. It seems as if Landon wants him too, so why won't the man jump in the sack with him already?

Landon never thought he’d return home to the town where memories lurk around every corner. He has to admit, Rod makes the adjustment a lot easier. He keeps Landon laughing. Despite the fierce attraction between them, he’s not willing to risk his newfound friendship to get laid.

Neither man wants something serious, but the more they're together, the harder it is to keep their hands to themselves, until eventually they stop trying.

But flings between friends are never simple, and as they attempt to shift gears, diving into their first relationship, they’re slammed with setbacks. If they want to truly move forward, before they hit the open road together, they’re going to have to let go of a past that could make them crash and burn.

Words and Confidence and Being an Immigrant by Cardeno C.

Immigration is a political topic and I don’t like to talk about politics. I just want to put that out there at the beginning of this post in the hope that the internet fairies will kindly protect me from a political discussion. And not just because I don’t like to talk about politics but because I want to talk about something very, very personal to me.
I recently read a book in our genre that isn’t about immigrants or immigration but it has an author’s note that addresses that topic. It addresses me. I’ll tell you upfront that I wrote the author to say the note upset me too much to ignore and because the note itself is public, I would address it publicly. 
This is the author’s note:


I’m an immigrant. That word, as you likely know, means I live in a country (the United States) in which I was not born. My parents weren’t born here either. We moved to the U.S. via Puerto Rico when I was six years old. In addition to trying to make sure I knew my birth language and those roots, my parents wanted me to learn the language in the new place I lived. That language was Spanish.
Kids are amazing, their brains are like little sponges, and I learned Spanish perfectly, fluently, like a native speaker. Puerto Rico was home to me until I was nine. At that age, three years is your entire life so Puerto Rico was home and Spanish was my primary language. I moved to the continental U.S. when I was nine, in August, and by Christmas time, when I called to wish my best friend in Puerto Rico a Merry Christmas, I had to do so in English because I remembered not one word of Spanish.
How is that possible? How can someone forget their primary language so quickly? The reason is that I went to a school where we were forbidden from speaking Spanish. It was English only in every location, playground included. I was the only Jewish person in the school. I was foreign. I spoke Spanish. I was different and I was so very, very petrified. So my nine year old self did the one thing I could try to do to fit in and not be punished, to be good, to follow the rules. I behaved by not speaking Spanish.
Forgetting Spanish is my single biggest regret in life. I’ve gone to see specialists about it and they say it’s a mental block, something I put up in my nine year old brain and only I can remove it. I’ve tried. I did everything I could think of, hypnosis included, and I failed. I’m not a fan of failure. I’m usually one to brush it off and try again and again and again. But at this, I failed. Because when I stepped into the box my teachers and school administrators gave me and sealed myself shut inside it, I destroyed that very valuable part of myself.
My mother had never truly been able to pick up Spanish (languages aren’t her strong suit) but my father spoke Spanish at work every day. You may wonder why my parents didn’t step in to stop this from happening or encourage me to keep speaking Spanish to my father or my younger siblings. I don’t wonder because I know that they, like me, were strangers in a strange land. They didn’t speak English, we were all learning, and they didn’t know how to navigate their new world. They had more than enough on their plates.
So I learned English. I learned it well. I tested into every honors class, much to the consternation of several teachers, including a particularly loud English one. I learned that if I kept my head down and worked my ass off, they couldn’t keep me out of those classes. They would be forced to watch me pull myself up.
I also learned that if I spoke English perfectly, with no accent, the banks and post offices and supermarkets of the world couldn’t ignore me when I talked to them about the way they treated my parents. The way they didn’t look at my parents in the face. The way they smirked and said “what” over and over again no matter how slowly and clearly my parents pronounced every word. I could translate for my parents or I could simply restate what they had already said in my perfect English. Often it was easier for my parents if I just did that to begin with. That way there were no disparaging looks or ugly tones. That way their status, our status, as immigrants wasn’t noticed. If they stayed quiet, stayed in the shadows, stayed in their box, nobody would have to be uncomfortable. So they behaved and I behaved and the people in our new country were comfortable.
When one of my siblings was in seventh grade, the yearbook came home with a very American-sounding name under her picture. My parents were more sad than confused. They didn’t like it, but they understood. It gets tiring correcting someone when they mispronounce your name over and over again. It gets tiring seeing their face when they read your name, which is a big part of your identity, and cringe. It’s easier to behave and step into the box quietly. Using one of their easily pronounced names helps with that because it meets their expectations. My sister didn’t want to be different, so she followed the social rules. She behaved.
Friends who have been in my life since my early days in the continental U.S. recount stories about me calling the doctor for my parents, yelling at the bank for my parents, dealing with the airlines for my parents. They say I was never a child. And they’re right. I couldn’t act like any other kid. I wasn’t like any other kid. I had to do better, be more respectful, because there were dire consequences for myself and my family if I didn’t follow the rules. My childhood in many ways ended when I was six. But that is not what my parents wanted for me.
My parents are proud of the adult I am and the child I was. They are grateful for what I did and continue to do for them. But they did not want me to be an adult at six. They did not want me or my siblings to walk through life on eggshells, so scared of being punished, whether by losing out on the “good” classes at school or, worse, losing our ability to remain in this country, that we thanked the person who opened the box for us to step inside.
But what could they do? They didn’t have the power to stop it and the people with power, well, those people saw immigrants, they heard accents, and they had certain expectations. If they treated us with the same respect they did our non-immigrant classmates, we had better show them ten times that level of respect back so nobody could say we were insubordinate or ungrateful. If a job had to be done, we had to do it perfectly with no room for error because there was always someone saying we were lazy, we didn’t belong, there was always someone ready to kick us down to something less or somewhere else.
These parts of my childhood, my past, these parts of me, aren’t something I would have chosen. They aren’t something my parents would have chosen for me. These are things we went through. These are things we had to do. These are ways we had to behave. And we knew every second that we were doing it, that the people around us expected that from us and that we would suffer if we didn’t get into their box.
The author’s note above talks about a child’s confidence coming from a knowledge that without the child’s help, the child’s family would be lost. Let me say that again: a child’s confidencestemming from the realization that the potential loss of a family is on the child’s shoulders.
I was that child and I can tell you the emotion we feel is not confidence. That emotion is desperation or fear or abject need. It is the farthest possible thing from confidence. Being different and at risk of losing everything for yourself and your family does not fill you with, as the author’s note says, self-assurance and the purpose you have when you are a child in that situation is not a purpose any parent wants for their child.
I don’t like to talk about politics. I don’t like to talk about books in my genre. I don’t like to talk about authors. I don’t like drama. And so I avoid all of that at nearly all costs.
But the six year old me, and then the nine year old me, who had to call and beg and shout to help my family because the grown-ups didn’t have the words or the people couldn’t understand their words. That child in me who was the one with my younger sibling at the hospital because my hardworking parents were at work and couldn’t navigate the paperwork anyway. That kid who was forced to be an adult and stand up for the family. That person has never and will never go away.
And so that person has no choice, I have no choice, but to stand up now and say something that should be obvious: words have meaning. The words that take our greatest struggles and fears, the words that highlight the shortcomings in our childhoods, the words that haunt our parents to this day, those words matter.

The words in that author’s note that sound like sweet, flowery, innocent compliments expose the mistruths people tell themselves to feel better about the part they play in what is a decidedly less enjoyable play for the immigrant actor. Do not hand me your box decorated in condescending compliments and tell me I’ll like living there. Those words are not compliments. They strip away the truth and reality of our experience and repaint it with a brush that with every stroke says, “We’re so generous for allowing you to be here. You should be grateful because this never should have been yours. Our America is not your America. You cannot make mistakes. You cannot relax. Work harder. Behave. Be respectful. Get in your box.”

Coastal Magic - Andrew Grey

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Coastal Magic convention in Daytona.  The convention itself was a real blast with lots of fun activities and some great panels.  For me the highlight of this convention, like most of them, are the people I meet.  Friends new and old who add the amazing sparkle to a gathering.  Lisa and Melinda invited me to dinner and we had amazing fun at Joe's Crap Shack.  BA, Julia, TC, and Sean are always amazing con partners and add fun every time they enter a room. 

One evening here was dancing and I managed to not flop around like some demented chicken.  Dancing has never been my forte and I doubt it will ever be.  I always consider the evening a win if no one gets hurt.  I also got to play Cards Against Humanity and I didn't win a single hand but it hardly mattered.  Its the fun and laughter that count and this convention engendered a lot of both.  I'm really looking forward to next year. 

****Please note that next week, Ask Andrew will return, but questions are sorely needed.****

Have a great week. 

Ask Andrew is your chance to ask questions of a gay romance author.  The questions can be about the writing process in general, writing sex scenes, gay men, sex, characters in romance, characters having sex... okay you probably get the picture.    I promise to answer your questions as frankly and with as much humor as I possibly can.

So if you have a question, please send it to andrewgreybooks@comcast.net.  This is different from my usual email so your questions don't get lost.  I will answer one question a week.

Please remember this is meant to be all in fun.  (I was going to say good, clean fun, but who wants that.)    So send me your questions and let's see what mischief we can get into.

Visit Andrew on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/andrewgreybooks  and you can join Andrew's fan group All The Way With Andrew Grey.

Follow him on Twitter:  @andrewgreybooks

Visit Andrew's web site:  www,andrewgreybooks.com

Questions and Answers with BA, Julia, Kiernan and Sean

Great news -- Kiernan Kelly will be joining in with the madness that is our weekly posts! So a big smutty welcome to Kiernan :)


Did you walk on the beach at Coastal Magic?

BA: We did. We went the wrong way for coffee, but we walked... 

Julia: We did! It rained on us a lot, but the first day was lovely and we got out and hit the beach. Mostly I watched Sean Michael chase seagulls.

Kiernan: I did not. First, the hotel was roughly the size of Texas. I'm surprised I didn't wear my legs down to nubs just walking to the convention space. Good thing, too, because then I would look like a Weeble. Also, the ocean looked angry. I tend to keep my distance from angry bodies of water.

Sean:Yes! And I paddled my feet in the water. And I ran at the seagulls to make them scatter.

Name a favorite moment at Coastal Magic:

BA: Just one? I have to say the very best part was the hugs. I got so many hugs and to have long discussions with the most amazing friends. It's my favorite part of any con. 

Julia: Ohm there are so many. Lunch with the author, though, made me so happy. The ladies we sat with rocked my socks. 

Kiernan: Omg, there were so many! Meeting up with you three ladies tops the list. Cinema Craptastique was so much fun, as was sitting on the Flash Fiction panel, and our Fistful of Rainbow Meet and Greet. And I think I peed a little from laughing so hard during Cards Against Humanity.

Sean: Lunch with Morticia, Sue, Tina, AE, Delorianne, Lisa, Andrea, BA and Julia is but one of the many wonderful moments.

How many rainbow tailed butt plugs does a person need?

BA: How many can I afford? 

Julia: Only as many as they'll actually use. 

Kiernan: One can never have enough rainbow-tailed butt plugs. Seriously, they're like potato chips, except you don't eat them. Unless you're into that sort of thing. Hey...we don't judge.

Sean: One can never have too many rainbow tailed butt plugs.

What name would you give a meal for a group of gay romance readers? (And would it consist of?)

BA: I'd feed everyone chili and cornbread and we'll just call it supper with friends.  

Julia: Hmmm. Cock and balls. Chicken meatballs and pasta ;) 

Kiernan: The name of the meal would be "The Spread(eagle)," and it would consist of many types of hard, pokey foods like carrots, cucumbers, etc. The main course would be Stuffed Pork Butt.

Sean: The Big Meat Platter and it would be include steak, sausage and potatoes.

What is one of your favorite kinks to write?

BA: I'm a huge fan of the OMGINEEDYOUSOMUCHI'MGOINGTORUBOFFWITHYOUAGAINSTAWALL thing. That's a thing, right?

Julia:Spanking. Oh, spanking ow I love thee. 

Kiernan: Ooh, kink.. Spanking is a favorite, I think because it adds an audible element that readers can easily imagine, even without personal experience, which makes the whole scene just a little more vivid.

Sean: I can only choose one? Fisting, sounding, kissing, twins... I just can't choose only one.

What is one of your favorite kinks to read?

BA: I love a good power play. One where the men are equal and they have to struggle with their power issues.

Julia: I love sounding. I don't write it confidently, but I do love to read it.. 

Kiernan: I love to read about D/s. Love me some strong, alpha Dom any day of the week.

Sean: I love 'em all, but I do especially like twins.

What trope do you love?

BA: My absolute favorite of all time trope is former lovers. I ADORE that trope.

Julia:I love them all. Amnesia. Surprise baby. I'm writing the lost heir right now.   

Kiernan:That's a tough one to narrow down. I think it depends on the genre. For example, when reading shifters, I love the whole alpha male thing, and the mate-for-life trope.

Sean: Bodyguard!

What food could you not live without?

BA: At this point, every single thing I would say that about has made me sick, so I'm going to defer.

Julia: Bread. Gluten free these days, and I can go weeks without, but not months.  

Kiernan: Swiss cheese. It's the devil. I don't even want to be in the same room with Swiss cheese.

Sean: meat

What's your favorite body part on a man?

BA: Eyes. I love the eyes. I'm also a collarbone fan. 

Julia: His hands 

Kiernan:Gah...I have to pick only one? I guess you mean besides the obvious fun part, huh? I love strong arms. Well defined, tattooed biceps rock my world. And butts. Little, firm, bouncy bubble butts, to be exact.

Sean: I love the whole male figure, but the hands and that crease at the hips are especially yummy

Make up a first line for a hot new romance you haven't written yet.

BA: "Shit, y'all." He looked around the room, fighting his laughter for all he was worth. "I don't care if you're gonna get all weird on me, but did you have to use my pigging ropes?" 

Julia: "Damn it, would you watch where you're going, asshole?" 

Kiernan: Judging from the sudden silence and shocked expressions of the other shoppers in the supermarket, Kyle realized soon after his arrival that he'd forgotten to put on his pants again.

Sean: Marty didn't know why this always happened to him, but just like clockwork, here he was again, butt naked in the middle of a crowd. 


Got a topic you'd like us to tackle? Let us know!

You can find us on Twitter at @seanmichael09, @juliatalbot, @batortuga and @KiernanKelly

Sean’s website is http://www.seanmichaelwrites.com
Julia’s is http://www.juliatalbot.com
BA’s is http://www.batortuga.com
Kiernan's is www.KiernanKelly.com

Facebook:
Sean -- https://www.facebook.com/SeanMichaelWrites
Julia -- https://www.facebook.com/juliatalbotauthor
BA -- https://www.facebook.com/batortuga
Kiernan -- https://www.facebook.com/kiernan.kelly


Sean
smut fixes everything
where the naughty boys come... and play

Writing Recap (02.08.2016) by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday! It’s time for writing recap.

I'm currently working on a standalone contemporary novel with the working title Moral Turpitude.I released the second (standalone) Pack book – Red River.I’ve continued working on more audio books. These are now available or will be soon:Home: Where He Ends and I Begin narrated by Alexander Collins is available. The One Who Saves Me should be live in a few weeks.Alexander is currently recording Love at First Sight.Family: The amazing Ezekiel Robison recorded The Half of Us.He also recorded Something in the Way He Needs. More Than Everything will be available within a few weeks. And Ezekiel is currently working on Strong Enough.Mates: Charlie David’s rendition of In Your Eyes is available.Hope: Paul Morey recorded Jesse’s Diner, the second (standalone) book in the Hope collection. Have a great week.


CC
www.cardenoc.com

Writing is just writing. Right? by Renae Kaye

Yesterday and today I’ve managed to achieve a lot toward my writing career and my book is several steps closer to being published.  You may assume that I mean I wrote a huge amount of words on the page, but I don’t.  I cannot solely base my effectiveness of getting a book out by keeping a track of my word count.
For those who don’t publish (or may I say, don’t publish well) then it is about writing.  I’ve watched many authors on Facebook and blogs who just churn the handle day after day.  They don’t seem to take care with their stories.  Maybe that’s a little too simplistic.  I’ll take it back.  Because you can’t judge an author on how many words they write a day.  So let me tell you what I’m talking about.
Yesterday I worked about 9 hours – and I didn’t write a single word that I’ve put on the document where I keep a track of my writing.  Today has been the same.  Long hours and no word count.  See I was preparing a book to go to my publisher. French translation now available
Back in the old days before I was a writer, I had this vague idea about the process of writing.  A novel is between 60,000 and 100,000 words.  A writer should be able to write 1000 words an hour.  Six hours a day is a decent run – so 6,000 words a day?  Working 5 days a week, then a book will be finished in two weeks – right?
**falls to the ground laughing**
Maybe an author with a lot of writing experience can write a “clean” story.  Personally I need to go back and fix up lots of things on my manuscript.
For example, today I went back and checked the chapter headings and found I had two chapter fives and two chapter sixteens.  Whoops.  Maybe some think that this is what an editor is for, but my personal experience is that if an editor is not bogged down by silly errors, they have a lot more of a chance to concentrate on the words.  The edit is better.
My big thing is to go back and change all my spelling from Australian spelling to American.  It’s impossible for me to write “humor” and “realize” when I’ve been taught to write “humour” and “realise.”  The writing flows better if I can just get it out, and then go back and fix this stuff up.
I also need to contract contract contract.  Although, as my writing progresses I find I automatically contract more in the draft of my manuscript, I still need to check it.  Contracting is writing “he’s” instead of “he is” which sounds very formal. 
Once I’ve finished contracting, I check on my “just”s.  I just seem to just write a lot of justs in my story.  I just have to cull them.
Yesterday was spent reading the story from start to end and making sure I’d tied up all the plot points.  I found a friend called Ben in my manuscript who was never mentioned again.  I found my character gave his boyfriend a key to the house, yet a month later the boyfriend was locked out.  I found several points that were never addressed after they were brought up.  And I found the MC did mention [hidden spoiler alert] 12 months before it came true.  So all of these were tidied up, wound up, changed or expanded.
All of these things go into making a story.  All of these things go into making a good story.
There is a lot of emphasis by marketers to get your product out there.  Get it in front of the readers.  Sell sell sell.  More more more.  But more at the cost of a good product?  I’m fortunate enough that I sell enough books (**big squishy hugs to my loyal readers**) that I don’t feel the need to compromise quality for the sake of speed.  I’d rather spend more time on getting something out that I’m proud of, than making sure I keep up with XYZ author in release dates.
On Wednesday I spent nearly four hours on considering if the model on the cover of my book had enough shadow, and did the author name look better in white or brown?
The week before that was editing and seeing if I agreed with the removal of a bunch of hads and thats from my story.
It’s not ALL writing.  Writing is just the first step – or the second if you are one who plots the story out before.
In an hour I hope to send an email off to my publisher with my latest submission.  I’m quietly confident that they will like it.  I’m hoping they slot me in for a publication berth asap.  After all, you guys want to know if Liam strangled Jay in frustration, or if Jay managed to move his entire wardrobe into Liam’s apartment, right?

How to contact Renae:Email:  renaekaye@iinet.net.auWebsite:  www.renaekaye.weebly.comFB:  www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9Twitter:  @renaekkaye

I Love NY by Felice Stevens

One of the things I love about writing is losing myself in another world, even if the world I'm in is one I see every day.

If you know me and my books, then you know I live in NYC and set my books in and around the city. My characters often share the stage with the neighborhoods of New York; on any given page you may find yourself at Nathan's in Coney Island, the High Line in Manhattan or flying kites along Jamaica Bay. New York City becomes one of the characters. She is seductive, and overwhelming, while at the same time playful and tantalizing. 

I love drawing a vivid picture of where my guys are at any given moment in their book, and often incorporate the scene to mirror the atmosphere. In Memories of the Heart, Micah and Josh have a heartfelt talk about courage and love around the 9/11 Memorial. In After the Fire, Luke tries to escape and lose himself in the crowds of the High Line. And we know all about Sam teaching Zach to fly kites along the Belt Parkway and getting serious at Coney Island.

People have asked me if I'd consider writing in a different locale, but in NYC, every neighborhood is different. From one block to another you can go from private homes to groups of pre-war apartment buildings, nestling side by side with brand new construction.

So for now, with my latest releases of the Breakfast Club, I'm sticking with home. New York, New York, its a hell of a town.
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